The annual Whit Monday Welches Fest was held on Monday, May 25th, bringing together crowds of Anguillians and tourists, as well as visitors from neighbouring islands to savour dishes of yesteryear and to get a taste of our culture and heritage.
The all day village-life experience enabled people to converge on the Fredrick Harrigan Playing Field not just to feast on locally made delicacies, but to meet up with old acquaintances and have some healthy fun against the backdrop of ole time music provided by Tok and the Boys and other local scratch bands.
Welches Fest had traditionally been organized by a group of Vanterpool siblings in the neighbourhood to show the young people of the Welches community the various customs that marked the way of life in the “ole time days”. Since those formative years, Welches Fest has taken off with rocket speed and now attracts Anguillians island-wide.
Again this year, of special note was the annual sponsorship of a delightful seniors’ luncheon sponsored by Cap Juluca Hotel. A generous number of seniors turned out to benefit from the delicious meal with an ole time flavor, and to enjoy the relaxing scenery.
For this year’s event, The Anguillian Newspaper got on site around 12:00 noon, meeting the field abuzz with a great deal of activity. We asked Willy, one of the Vanterpool brothers, how things were going, and whether they had envisioned the event to take on this caliber of popularity.
“When we started, eighteen years ago, it was not intended that our efforts would take on this level of enthusiasm and popularity,” he said. It was not even an event, per se. We had just intended to show the youngsters of the community certain features of the village way of life in days of old. But more people got to understand what we were doing. We were able to get a few sponsors, our ideas kept rolling and the Fest took off.”
“Welches Fest has grown tremendously,” he said. “Over the years great development has taken place. When we first started, we had never expected it to that on an ambiance of this kind. Look, this morning so many people were coming in and lining up early as usual just to get their johnny cakes and our traditional stinkin weed coffee. And, since there would be no boat race today, due to the unusually high wind, we expect to be hosting much more people later this afternoon.”
From as early as eight in the morning folks were rushing in for their favourite Welches Fest dishes and delicious delicacies. Whether it was flour pap; guinea corn porridge; stinkin weed coffee; butcher bits; goat-head-‘n-foot soup; yard fowl soup; and pigeon pea soup, the Vanterpool siblings had delivered what they had promised. Other delicacies include the famous sham; potato pudding; conkie dumplings; johnny cakes with salt fish, pumpkin bread; banana bread; tarts; cherry jam; tamarind jam and more.
One great feature of the frolic and fun was widespread participation in a eating and drinking competition. For this, Joe Vanterpool mimicked his commentary on the feasting contenders as if they were racing boats, as Boat Racing has been for many years Anguilla’s most prominent sport.
By 9:00 p.m. when it was time to wrap it all up, people were still milling around for more. The music and jolly dancing that had pervaded the air all day lingered past the hour.
The Welches Fest Committee wishes to extend sincere thanks to the Anguillian community and sponsors who has supported the events over the years. They are committed to make the one-day festival even better each year for the enjoyment of all.
